It is the patented, assisted opening system built into many of Kershaw’s best selling Ken Onion knives. Speed Safe assists the user to smoothly open the knife with a manual push on the blade’s thumb stud or Index open system. The Index Open uses a protruding portion of the blade’s finger guard to give the uses an alternate to the thumb stud. The user manually pulls back on the protrusion with the index finger to open the blade. The heart of the Speed Safe system is its torsion bar. Closed, the torsion bar helps keep the knife closed, Preventing it from being opened by gravity. In order to open the knife, the user must apply manual pressure to the thumb stud to overcome the resistance of the torsion bar. After the blade is out of the handle, the torsion bar moves along its half moon track and takes over. The blade opens smoothly and locks into position.